This year's Boulder County Fair parade to stay in downtown Longmont

Peggy Thorne rides on an antique sickle behind a John Deere tractor during the 2012 Boulder County Fair parade.
(Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- This year's Boulder County Fair Parade will again march through downtown Longmont.

Fair Board president Jerry Slepicka said the board voted this week to use the traditional downtown parade route along Main and Coffman streets on Saturday, Aug. 3, instead of pursuing an earlier plan to change to a route that would have been closer to the fairgrounds at 9595 Nelson Road.

Boulder County Fair officials had proposed having the parade leave the southern entrance of the fairgrounds, head east on Nelson Road, turn north on Sunset Street and then take a left on Boston Avenue, traveling west before re-entering the fairgrounds from the north.

The 3 Margaritas restaurant dancing horses make their way down Main Street during the 2012 Boulder County Fair parade.
(Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

However, Longmont city officials have expressed concerns about the safety and traffic congestion problems that might result when the fair floats, marching bands and other parade units show up at the same Boston Avenue entryway that's used on Saturdays by many of the patrons and vendors of the weekly Boulder County Farmers' Market at the fairgrounds, Slepicka said.

While the city didn't veto the new route, its officials questioned whether the fairgrounds' north entrance and the street leading to it were wide enough to accommodate both the parade and the Farmers' Market's morning traffic, Slepicka said.

Fair coordinator Laura Boldt emphasized on Friday that the proposal to move the fair parade was never intended to indicate anything negative about the downtown Longmont venue for the annual event.

The main reason for changing the route, Boldt said, "was to accommodate the exhibitors and the volunteers" at the fairgrounds, including the 4-H club members whose exhibits will start opening on Aug. 2, the day before the parade.

When the fairgrounds moved from the downtown Longmont area's Roosevelt Park in 1978 to its current west-side location alongside Hover Street, the parade didn't move, and Boldt said a number of exhibitors and volunteers have said they'd feel more like the parade was part of the fair -- and that they could be part of the parade -- if it started and ended at the fairgrounds itself.

Slepicka said on Friday that most of the organizers, sponsors and traditional parade participants supported the proposed route change. He said the Fair Board would still like to move the parade to a loop that's closer to the fairgrounds in future years.

But Slepicka said board members decided this week that for this year, at least, "we thought it might be better for everyone" to continue staging the parade in downtown Longmont.

This year's Boulder County Fair is expanding to a 10- day schedule, running from Aug. 2 through Aug. 11.

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